Lightweight, loose-fill packaging materials are difficult to collect for re-use or disposal because the generally weightless materials, for example polystyrene foam "peanuts" or "popcorn", typically blow away in the presence of minimal air movement, and such materials may cling to the collecting device. Such lightweight packaging materials may also be made from corn and potato starches, wood pulp and scraps, paper fibers, and other biodegradable materials.
Conventional vacuum cleaners and the like, particularly larger industrial cleaners, have been used to collect loose-fill packaging materials. Additionally, blower devices have been used to direct a source of air towards such materials to move them to a specific location for collection by a vacuum cleaner, a broom and dust pan, or by hand.
Generally, commercially available vacuuming devices create suction to draw materials into a nozzle and through a hose to a collection receptacle, or with hand held vacuuming devices, through an attached nozzle directly into a collection receptacle. Typically, individual pieces of commonly used, loose-fill packaging materials are designed to interlock and are manufactured using in an expansion process to occupy as much space per weight as possible. When drawn into a conventional vacuuming device such materials may interlock and clog the hose thereby requiring the operator to repeatedly disconnect and unblock the hose. Also, many of the collection containers of conventional vacuum cleaners are not large enough to hold any sufficient volume of the loose-fill materials thereby inconveniencing the operator with repeated emptying operations. Additionally, loose-fill packaging materials commingle with dirt in the collection container, or dirt collected with the packaging materials, rendering re-use of loose-fill material impractical. Re-use of loose-fill packaging materials is desirable because of cost and ecological considerations.
Using a blower device to move loose-fill packaging material to a specific area for collection generally creates a cloud of dust or dirt thereby causing discomfort, health hazards, and possibly physical harm to persons within the vicinity.
When not collected and disposed of, biodegradable loose-fill materials, such as corn starch, will begin to decompose when subjected to high humidity or wet conditions thereby creating a danger to persons who may slip and fall on the decomposing material. Additionally, decomposing biodegradable materials may attract insects and rodents thereby creating a health hazard. When not collected and disposed of, non-biodegradable material may be blown out into the environment creating a public nuisance.
Prior art attempts to use power to clean up and collect loose-fill packaging materials have centered around using conventional vacuum devices, particularly industrial vacuum cleaners. Such devices, in addition to the clogging described above, generally produce high suction at the intake thereby collecting and intermingling large amounts of extraneous dirt and objects with the loose-fill packaging materials making re-use of the packaging materials difficult without separation from the unwanted materials. While industrial collection and filtering devices are known in the prior art for separating solid and powder refuse, one such device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,107, such devices are expensive and impractical for the small shop or individual user.
Although specialty attachments for conventional vacuum cleaners exist in the prior art, none appear suited to collect lightweight, loose-fill packaging materials. One such attachment is a power brush that snap mounts to a hand-held vacuum cleaner as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,346. U.S. Pat. No. 4,713,858 describes a leaf collection attachment for a vacuum or blower device. The leaf attachment defines three attachment ports. One port attaches to the vacuum device, a second port attaches to a conventional collection hose, and a third port, generally at a right angle to the second port, attaches to a collection device. The leaf attachment does not appear adaptable for use with portable, hand held, smaller vacuum cleaners. Other attachments for vacuum cleaners described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,780,986 and 4,279,095 use suction to trap insects in small chambers.
As may be seen from the above discussion of the prior art, an unsolved need exists for an easy to use device for attachment to the majority of conventional vacuum cleaners and the like for collection and disposal or re-use of variable quantities of a variety of lightweight loose-fill packaging materials.